1up: The Last Hurrah

[WanderingMind]

2 years is a long time on the internet. From 2006 to 2008, I was on hiatus from 1up.

I guess I really needed the time off 1up. I had a lot of personal issues that needed to be taken care of and 1up no longer seemed important to me.

Fast forward to 2008. A lot of my old friends on 1up were no longer active and moved on to other things. I visited 1up from time to time, but I wasn't active myself. That all changed in February when I made my comeback. A couple days later, 1up went through the dreaded server change. 1up never looked so broken to me. I tried to move my blog to Blogger in March, but I gave after three days and returned to 1up. Things went uphill from there and I experienced my best year on 1up.

I met a lot of cool people throughout last year and discovered Foxkei in April. I first heard about it through AlucardsFate, but it was GlassAdam who convinced me to sign up.

I joined Foxkei on April 26, 2008.

[WanderingMind]

The beginning of my best year on 1up.

The Comeback Blog
Posted: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:14:03 PST


After being inactive for almost two years, I thought I was going to give up on this site for good. I even had my farewell ready. But then, a thought came to me. Where would I go from here?

Nowhere, really.

So here I am, making my comeback.

I have been on 1up for a long time. I remember when the current design was new. To be specific, I joined this site on November 2, 2004. I started my blog right away, and I kept it active until the middle of 2006. Some of my posts were really good; some of them were crap. While I wasn't really popular, I was glad I at least got comments. I have many great memories from those times.

I became less active on 1up during 2006. I commented every once in a while, but my blog came to a halt in July of that year.

What happened was that I wrote a story called "The Yu-gi-oh Brawl." It was based on a true story of two kids at a summer camp who got into a fight over a Yu-gi-oh match. I was going to have somebody look over the rough draft before I was going to post it. The whole thing fell through, however, and I put the story away for good.

I would not do another blog for almost two years.

After spending the last couple months adjusting to college life, I rediscovered my 1up page.

Most of my friends are no longer on 1up, and the few who remain no longer update their pages often.

I feel like a lurker again.

Anyways, I am glad to be back on 1up.

[WanderingMind]

Not long after I returned, 1up went through the server change. Being the patient person I am, I stuck around as long as I could.

My thoughts about the 1up upgrade
Posted: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:34:13 PST

1up went through an upgrade not long after I came back to this site. It looked really promising, especially with the upgraded servers.


Unfortunately, 1up is now a mess. A lot of things that are happening on this site are seriously bugging me out.


The Clubs


When I checked out the club page, 1up only showed 21 of the thirty-something clubs I joined. I thought I lost some of the clubs through the upgrade. I went through all 21 clubs and left those that haven't been updated in a year or so. Then I got to see some of my other clubs. I soon realized that 1up only showed 21 of my clubs and hid the rest.


Every other person on this site has complained about only seeing three of their friend's clubs, but I've noticed something else. Before the upgrade, 1up used to display those three clubs based on when they were last updated. Now it doesn't.


The Arena


http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/ClubContestsArena.jpg


Wow. I can't believe the Arena is still around.


For those who don't know what I'm talking about, the Arena is a leftover from the early days. People used to send in pictures and other users rated them 1-10.


This Arena has long since been discontinued. This is what it now looks like:


http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/ArenaPage.jpg


1up, get rid of the Arena for good.


Points


http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/MyPoints2.jpg


If you are going to upgrade a website, make sure you upgrade all the pages.


This page used to show how many points you earned based on page views, viewing friend's pages, etc. It's ironic seeing this page when the points system finally works.


Previewing


I said this two years ago, and I will say this once again:


Where is the preview button? I want to preview my blogs, comments, and club posts before I post them.


Messages


The message system is broken. I don't know if I get new messages unless I actually look at my inbox. I would like to receive notifications by email. MySpace and Facebook do this, so why can't 1up?



I know times are tough on 1up right now, with Ziff Davis filing for bankruptcy, but I want to see this place fixed and gone back to normal. If things don't get better anytime soon, I might have to set up a blog on another site. For now, I won't be posting any of my stories here.





If you have read this far, congratulations!


I finally beat Metroid Prime 2. Emperor Ing and Dark Samus were easier than I thought.


Boost Guardian: 4 tries

Spider Guardian: 9 tries

Emperor Ing: 2 tries

Dark Samus 3 & 4: 1 try

I lost my patience with 1up and tried to move my blog to Blogger.

I'm packing my bags
Posted: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:34:09 PDT

I'm fed up with 1up.

Things haven't got that much better since my last post. There are still a lot of problems with this place and a lot of people have left.

I have made my decision to move to blogspot

I'll still be around on 1up, but please bookmark the other place if you want to keep up with my blog.

How I got the name "WanderingMind":

I changed my mind
Posted: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:07:44 PDT

I'm staying here. With 1up going back to normal, I no longer feel like maintaining a liveblog.

My liveblog

This week's experiment...Failed

The most I got accomplished during those three days was coming up with a name for my new YouTube account. A couple months ago, I became tired of my old name. So I set out on a quest to find a new name. I chose "TheWanderingMind" because I can be really random at times.

Things I did during the first three days of spring break:

-Bought Smash Bros. Brawl. (Left my Wii at school)

-Watched Seven Samurai. If you haven't seen it, set aside an afternoon / evening and watch it.

-Forgot it was St. Patrick's Day yesterday.

[WanderingMind]

I finished the Yu Gi Oh Brawl two years after I wrote the original draft and posted it on 1up and Deviantart.

The Yu-Gi-Oh Brawl
Posted: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:48:05 PDT

I have finally finished "The Yu-Gi-Oh Brawl".

"The Yu-Gi-Oh Brawl" is based on a true story about two kids who get into a fight over a Yu-Gi-Oh match, hence the name. I saw the actual fight happen at my summer camp years ago. The only things that I changed were the names, events, and just about everything else.

I originally wrote this story two years ago and then went on to put it aside. It wasn't until this spring break that I gave it another look. I spent the week editing and revising the story into its present form.

I hope you enjoy this short story.

Link: http://onewanderingmind.deviantart.com/art/The-Yu-Gi-Oh-Brawl-87494941

[WanderingMind]

I was on a roll on 1up....

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Posted: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:03:27 PDT

If you don't know, Brawl is awesome. I really like playing online despite the occasional lag. The game is not a big change from Melee, which is more of a good thing. Melee was already a big improvement over the original to begin with.

I wish Segata Sanshiro was a playable character.

Watch this video and you will understand why:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/o3lCF8O2N50&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o3lCF8O2N50&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

You can read more about him here (http://evilboris.sonic-cult.net/346/).

I'm still working on "Mysterious Grounds". The story has gone through a lot of changes since I wrote this blog.

Even if the Zelda manga isn't that great, I'll still check it out.

New Story + Legend of Zelda Manga
Posted: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:40:33 PDT

I woke up early to sign up for classes at 7:00 am. I think I might go to sleep after I (hopefully) get all my choices.

I've been working on another story called "Mysterious Grounds" (Working Title):

Overview: Forty years ago, a man dies under mysterious circumstances in the woods near Camp Green Hill. This was also the same place where people used to dump old appliances such as refrigerators.
Jump to the present. One night, two campers venture out into the woods. They spot a shadowy figure with glowing eyes and run for their lives. Everyone hears about what happened the next day, but most people dismiss it as another tall tale. Not Samuel Jenkins. He believes there is a connection between the shadowy figure and the dead man from forty years ago. Sam gets his friends to join him on the journey to uncover the truth.

I will need some time to work on the story, so I guess the first chapter will come out sometime around May, when I am done with school.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/Manga_oot.jpg


This makes me really excited. If you haven't heard already, The Legend of Zelda manga is finally coming to North America. I can't wait until it comes out in October.

How I discovered my love for the SNES...

Retro Gamer
Posted: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:30:37 PDT

About a week ago or so, I think I realized something: I've always been a retro gamer. I'm also new school, but I have been retro for a long time.

I became a retro gamer when I was around nine to ten years old. It was around the time my parents got divorced and a year or so before I moved to another house in the same town. I was cleaning out my room and found my Super Nintendo, which I hadn't played in years, along with a copy of the first Mortal Kombat. I played it with my older brother, just like when I was younger. The console wasn't in very good condition, so I went out and got the redesigned Super Nintendo.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/snes2_sys.jpg

Some SNES games I still had were Final Fantasy II, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, and Kirby's Dream Land 3. I got pretty far in Final Fantasy II, up to point where you fight Yang.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/ff4spoony.png

I bought two more games for the SNES: Super Bomberman 2 and Super Metroid. As with every other Bomberman game, the single player mode was forgettable. Wish I had someone to play multiplayer with. Now, Super Metroid, that is one awesome game. I'll never forget the first moments of the game, walking through the lifeless space station, fighting Ridley, and running out before the place exploded. Super Metroid is much better than Metroid Fusion, if you ask me.

Eventually, the controllers wore out and the internal batteries died. The last time I played my Super Nintendo was a couple years ago. I have since bought most of the games on the Virtual Console and plan on getting Final Fantasy IV for the DS.

I always knew I was a retro gamer from the moment I bought the redesigned SNES.

[WanderingMind]

No items, no mercy!

Papers!
Posted: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:00:35 PDT

I haven't been able to go on 1up as much as I want to. I have three papers to write by the end of the semester. It used to be four, but one of my papers was due this past Friday. At least I only have two exams to study for. In about two and a half weeks, I'll be done with school and back in Florida. As you can guess, I haven't had the time to work on Mysterious Grounds.

In other news:

# I have beaten the Subspace Emissary (on Normal). Some of my friends don't bother playing it.

# I'm going to play in a Brawl tournament. No items, no mercy!

This epic tournament lasted four hours one Sunday afternoon.

Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament
Posted: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:27:30 PDT

The Brawl Tournament started at 2:00 p.m. All the items were turned off and most of the stages were banned. All matches were one-to-one. Each player had three lives and six minutes before going to sudden death. The winners in the first rounds were determined by the best two out of three matches and people were eliminated after losing two rounds.

We had 27 people show up to the tournament. Since we only had two Wiis, the tournament lasted about four hours. Link was my fighter of choice. I think I waited about an hour and a half before I played my first round. I was up against Pikachu all three matches. I did well the first match, but it went downhill from there. Now I understand why Pikachu can be really annoying. I won the second round and lost the third round.

The one round I won, I used Link against Dedede. The person I beat went on to play in the final round.

The final round was epic. It only lasted one match because we reserved a room for four hours and we were running late. The match was King Dedede vs. Peach on Final Destination. The person playing King Dedede was the only one using the Wiimote with the Nunchuk, the same one I beat in an earlier round. The person playing Peach was the champion from last year. People who were used to Melee did not do as well in Brawl, but not with this person. He won against King Dedede and won the tournament.

Although I had a great time at the tournament, I am now officially burnt out on Brawl. I probably won't play it again for a while.

*added Bad Dudes review to stuff do before I leave 1up*

Short post
Posted: Sun, 18 May 2008 18:51:40 PDT

I'm going to turn 19 tomorrow. Big post coming soon.

(Edit 05/22/2008): The big post is going to be a review of Bad Dudes for the arcade.

[WanderingMind]

I'll job hunt again this summer. Wish me the best of luck.

My 19th birthday
Posted: Mon, 19 May 2008 23:09:53 PDT

I turned 19 today. It wasn't anything special and it didn't top last year, when I graduated from high school on my 18th birthday. Here is what happened today:

# I applied to Best Buy and Gamestop.

# I got cash for my birthday, which I used to buy games, anime, manga, and other stuff.

# So I was at Gamestop today, and this kid was trying to get Saint's Row. The person at the counter said that it was rated M and and every single content that went with the rating. Since the kid's mother was there, he asked if it was okay to get Saint's Row. The kid says that he is usually allowed to get M-rated games and that the only one he can't get is Grand Theft Auto. The person at the counter tells the mother that Saint's Row is a lot like Grand Theft Auto, so the kid tries to bs about how the two games are different. Knowing that this was a losing battle, he decides to not get the game.

# I finally hooked up my Playstation 2, which I shipped back home with my other stuff from school. I played Arcana Heart and Fur Fighters.

# Me tired. Me very sleepy. Thank goodness I can sleep in now that I'm out of school. Good night.


Out of the four, I finished my guide to college.

A Preview of Things to Come
Posted: Wed, 28 May 2008 15:10:53 PDT

It's been about two weeks since I finished school and returned to Florida. Now that I actually have spare time, I have some blogs I plan on writing. Here they are, in no particular order:

# How to improve the online mode in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

This seems obvious and straightforward, but I'm going to be really creative with this one.



# Review: Super Smash Bros. (N64)

The one game that started it all. Does the original Smash Bros. hold up today? Will I be able to find someone else to play with in multiplayer? Find out in my review of Super Smash Bros.



# Review: Bad Dudes vs. Dragonninja

I review the most badical game to hit the arcades.



# egmmer's Guide to College

I finished my first year at Lafayette College, so I'm going to share some of my experiences. Read about the all-nighter I pulled and hear some useful advice about college.



In other news, I'm now an intern at the West Palm office of Ron Klein, my local congressman. All I do is office work and answer phone calls. Since I only go in half a day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I've been looking for a job. It doesn't look like I'll land a position at Best Buy or Gamestop, so I've been applying to a bunch of restaurants and a movie theater.

In case you were wondering, I have a facebook. I'm on that site a lot, so feel free to send me a friend invite.

My friends at school ask me if I finished Metroid Prime 3 yet. It has turned into a running joke of sorts whenever I talk about some other game I plan on finishing.

5,000 Views
Posted: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:12:55 PDT

I have just reached my 5,000th view on 1up. Thank you to my readers and to everyone who has stopped by my page. I have been working on my guide to college, so it should be finished soon.

Job Hunting

I just finished my job applications and I'm going to turn them in tomorrow. Right now, I'm looking at four restaurants and a movie theater.

Part Two (June 5):

I applied as a bus boy to all four restaurants and found out today that three of the restaurants were not taking anyone for that position. I'm not sure if I'll land a job at the fourth restaurant or the movie theater, so I have been looking at other places. Right now, I'm applying to:

# More restaurants
# Barnes and Noble
# Books-A-Million

In other news...

Right now, I'm playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I have been really lazy when it comes to that game. I bought it around last year, played up to the third case, didn't touch it again until earlier this year, finished the fourth case and started the fifth case, but had to stop because of finals. I'm on the third day of the trial and I guess I'm almost done.

Update (June 7): I finished the game this afternoon. I guess I'm going to play Metroid Prime 3 next.

[WanderingMind]

I'm proud of this blog.

egmmer's Guide to College
Posted: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:44:17 PDT

Some of you are going to college this fall, while some of you are returning to college (like me). Last month, I finished my first year at Lafayette College. It was definitely an experience, as it was the first time I have really lived outside of Florida. In one year, I went from a Computer Science major to a History major.

College is definitely a new experience, since you will be on your own. This is why I have decided to write a guide to college. Please keep in mind that I go to a school with 2,000 people, so your experience may vary. Still, I hope you find my guide helpful.



Preparing for College

Pack what you need

This should be the first thing on your mind, especially if you are going far away from home. If possible, check out your dorm room beforehand. Get a list of things to bring and make sure you start packing as soon as possible. Do not want to leave this step until the last minute, as it will save you a lot of stress. Finally, keep in mind how you will get to school.

Bring a computer

It doesn't matter what computer you have, just as long as it works. Should you bring a laptop or a desktop? It's up to you.

Classes

Know your classes

Do your research before you sign up for classes. Ask people who have taken classes with certain professors. If your school keeps student evaluations of professors, look them up.

Know when to drop classes

I learned this the hard way second semester when I took Intro to Biology because I thought it would be an easy way to finish my lab science requirement. Wow, I was wrong. I was on the verge of failing halfway through the class, so I dropped it rather than finish it and kill my GPA.

Don't leave your work until the last minute

If you got away with leaving your work until the last minute in high school, it won't work in college. You do not want to pull an all-nighter. I once stayed up for 36 hours working on two big papers. My longest day began when I woke up one Thursday at 8:40 am. I spent the morning putting the finishing touches on a 12 to 15-page paper and spent the rest of the afternoon writing up a 10-page paper. I took a break to eat dinner and spent the evening playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I resumed my paper at 11:00 at night, worked on it for an hour, took an hour off to grab something to eat, and made my way to the library, where I stayed all night until the sun came up. I ate breakfast, went back to the library, wrote some more of my paper, and went to my 9:00 class, where I almost fell asleep. I spent the rest of the morning writing as much as I could, only taking a lunch break. I only had nine pages by 2:00, so with 15 minutes until my paper was due, I printed it out, went off to my last class of the day, and turned in my paper. After class, I picked up my mail and ran into two of my friends, Jeff and Alan, on the way back to my dorm. Jeff looked at me and said, "You really look like you need some sleep." I went back to my room and played some Brawl for an hour. My longest day ended when I went to sleep at 4:00.

I didn't enjoy pulling this all-nighter, but it makes for one hell of a story.

Life

Roommates

If you get along with your roommate, all the better. If that's not the case, you can do one of a couple things:

1) Confront him or her about your issues.


2) Spend less time in your room and hang out elsewhere.


3) Request to move to another room.


4) Wait for something lucky to happen, such as your roommate moving out and having the room to yourself for the rest of the year.



Don't stay in your room all the time

Hang out with people, join some clubs, just do something as long as it gets you out of your room.

Know your limitations

Don't go overboard on the alcohol. If you don't like booze, then don't drink it. It took me two parties to realize that I didn't like beer, even though I limited myself to one drink.

Watch your money

This should be simple. Just keep this in mind: your college / university bookstore will rip you off when it comes to textbooks.



Other Links:

University Unity, Yay! (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7435148&publicUserId=5717499) (The inspiration for my guide)

How to be a Gamer...in college (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8735055&publicUserId=5518509) (I recommend checking this guide out)

[WanderingMind]

I'm hooked on manga.

Manga To Read and Then More...
Posted: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:30:23 PDT

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/rod3.jpg

I like to read a lot of manga. I usually pick up a volume or two whenever I'm at Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million. A couple days ago, I went through my room and realized I have a lot of unread manga. A lot. Just take a look at my list (volume number in parentheses):

Air Gear (1)
Berserk (2)
Chobits (4)
D.Gray-Man (1)
Death Note (2)
Fullmetal Alchemist (5-6)
Gunsmith Cats (4)
Gunsmith Cats Burst (1)
Hunter x Hunter (1)
Negima (1) (2-3)
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days (1)
Once Upon a Glashma (1)
MPD Psycho (2)
Rosario + Vampire (1)
Rurouni Kenshin (5-8)
Shaman King (1)
xxxHolic (2-3)
Yotsuba (2)

Manga I recently read:

Chobits (2-3)
Death Note (1)
Gunsmith Cats (3)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (8-10)
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (5)

I have very low expectations for Angelic Days and I'll be fortunate if I pick up the second volume.

Right now, I'm reading Rurouni Kenshin Vol 5 as well as finishing Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, which is already one of my favorite books.

What have you been reading lately?

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/yomiko.png

[WanderingMind]

I once took time off 1up and Foxkei to finish Persona 3: FES.

Persona 3 FES is awesome
Posted: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:05:42 PDT

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m26/cyezero/art-001.jpg

About a month ago, I promised myself I would not touch another game, except for The World Ends With You, until I finish Persona 3 FES. Having just passed the second full moon and about 10 hours into the game, I knew I had a long way to go. I didn't mind this because Persona 3 is awesome.

Persona 3 is part high school sim, part dungeon crawler. Part of why I like it so much is that it's like no RPG I have played before. The modern-day setting, likeable characters, and an awesome soundtrack really stood out for me.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn82/Yukiminato/persona_3___mitsuru_by_mahayuu.jpg

When I started Persona 3, I would play for four to six hours a day. By the beginning of July, I took some time off 1up to step things up. I played for eight to ten hours a day, fighting my way through Tartarus, getting stuck on the occasional guardian, and making it to the top early each month.


http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o96/littlegirlturbo/Persona%203/MainxYukari.jpg


Social Links I finished:

Kenji, Nozomi, Hidetoshi, Chihiro, Keisuke, Kazushi, Mamoru, Yuko, and Yukari

I was very close to finishing Mitsuko and Bunkinchi, the old couple at the bookstore.

You know I was playing Persona 3 for the first time when...

...until the very end of the game, I only fused Personas when I could get bonus experience.

...I didn't bother to sell the items you get from defeating the bosses.

....I fused Personas without knowing what Arcana I'll end up with.

It took me 100 hours to finish The Journey. The ending was good, but it left me wanting more. Good thing FES has The Answer.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/dogma_nyx6/persona%203/metisandaegis.jpg

The Answer is meant for people who have finished the main quest for a good reason. Even though it took me 37 hours to beat The Answer, it was far more challenging than The Journey, which I played on Normal. You don't want to mess with the red Shadows unless you're prepared. They move faster and unless you land a first strike, you should escape. You can't build social links, meaning you can't register Personas nor can you fuse weapons. Still, leveling up is easier because you don't have to worry about fatigue.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say the ending leaves no question unanswered, hence the name (heheheh...)

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg61/Roooby/persona%203/1201569389958.jpg

I finished The Answer last Thursday and Persona 3 FES is now one of my favorite games of all time.

---------------------------------------

Other Happenings:

- I have no luck getting a job this summer. Every restaurant I applied to has turned me down and I haven't heard from Barnes & Noble, Gamestop, Best Buy, and a movie theater. At least I have an internship.



Job Hunt


This summer's experiment…Failed.



- I like The Dark Knight so much, I saw it for a second time.

- This is my first blog using the new writing tools, which is way more user-friendly. It beats wrestling with html tags. Smile

[WanderingMind]

I never got the headphones replaced.

Adventures at Work
Posted: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:34:14 PDT

It's near the end of July and I have about three weeks until I leave for college. Since the middle of May, I have been working at the local office of my local congressman. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, usually in the afternoon but sometimes in the morning, I answer phone calls from people, file cabinets, and do other office work. The cabinet filing and other office work do not take long, so I surf the net when I'm not on the phone. Even though my shift lasts four hours, I usually leave an hour early to get ahead of traffic.

Oh yes, I can't forget about the phone calls. Most people call the office to express concern about an issue they're having, like social security or the post office. Sometimes, I will direct them to the higher-ups. Other people go on rants. I had an old woman call me to complain about the one time she saw Hillary speak and how there was a man sitting behind her being rude, looking at his watch, spacing out, and picking is nose. She demanded that the man apologize, talked about how she's been a registered voter for the past twenty-something years, and went on a tangent. At that point, I stopped paying attention. Then there was the one person who demanded that the congressman should support oil drilling. He sounded angry the whole time, talking about statistics to prove his point. Like I do with other phone callers, I ask him for his name, address, and phone number. He calls me a jerk and hangs up. Thankfully, I don't get these phone calls very often.

I only work for 9-10 hours a week and I don't get paid, which is why I tried to get another job. Still, it has been an interesting experience for me. My last day of work is August 1 and I'll be leaving for Texas on the 5th to visit my grandma for two weeks, so I don't know if I'll have internet access during that time.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/Making_fun_of_him_again_by_Cotton_K.jpg

Other Stuff:

- I played Twilight Princess for the first time in a year. It lacks the soul found in Wind Waker and the graphics haven't aged well, but it's still a good game.

-I saw Wall-E and half of Step Brothers before my sister dragged me to Mama Mia. Thankfully, we left halfway through the movie.

-I got these headphones (http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-audio-technica-Pleasant-Fit-Headphone-ATH-EM700-SV_W0QQitemZ360072444693QQihZ023QQcategoryZ3274QQr dZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q 2em118Q2el1247).

-This video is awesome:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4RfS2SzjbzM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4RfS2SzjbzM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[WanderingMind]

Still working on Shadow of the Colossus.

I'm Still Here
Posted: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:38:11 PDT

I have internet access, so I'm still here.

Before I left for Texas, I played Shadow of the Colossus for the first time in a year. Last time I played, I only beat the first Colossus, so I decided to start over. Right now, I'm on the sixth colossus.

So far, I really like this game. It's like someone took a bunch of epic boss battles and put them into one game. There isn't much to the game other than the boss battles, but it's always fun to wander around aimlessly.

About the headphones: I got them in the mail two days ago. Bad news is that they don't work. One side felt looser than the other, so I'll be returning them. Oh well.

Smashbro gave me the idea for the title of this blog.

Texas is hot
Posted: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:39:43 PDT

I'm flying back to Florida tomorrow.

Meanwhile, check out my review for Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Volume 1.

[WanderingMind]

It would be another month before my car was transported to me at school.

To college...again
Posted: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:27:21 PDT

Tomorrow, I'm going to leave Palm Beach Gardens for Lafayette College. Even though I have to drive from Florida to Pennslyvania, it isn't as bad as you think. I'm going to take an overnight auto train from north Florida to northern Virginia. Here's what the route looks like:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/AutoTrainNewSmall.jpg

From there, I will drive to Easton and get to campus sometime in the afternoon. I was supposed to leave on Thursday, but bad weather pushed my auto train ride to Saturday.

*update* (August 23)

I was about forty minutes into my drive to Sanford when I got a phone call telling me that my auto train ride got cancelled yet again. I turned around and drove back home.

I will be taking a flight from West Palm Beach to Allentown, which is near Easton, at 7:15 in the morning. This means I will have to do without my car until someone takes the next available auto train and brings it to campus.

What else...

- Dead Rising for the Wii (http://kotaku.com/5040381/dead-rising-wii-+-how-gimped-it-is):

What the hell!? I'm waiting until I get a 360 later this year, thank you very much.

- New Sonic Chronicles trailer:

http://blip.tv/file/1196276/

- I like this remix:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hMqxa2u4TN4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hMqxa2u4TN4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Who has school on labor day!? I did.

My Labor Day Sucked
Posted: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:06:45 PDT

You know what was special about my Labor Day? I had to go to classes because I didn't get the day off. It sucked.

This video cheered me up:

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Still playing The World Ends With You

A New Look
Posted: Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:24:18 PDT

So yeah, 1up got redesigned. It's going to take some time getting used to, but I'm liking it.

Currently playing: The World Ends With You, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Currently reading (manga): Tsubasa 8, Once Upon A Glashma

New blog sometime soon.

[WanderingMind]

My drive to get more people to support the Anime and RPG Tournament League.

Support Your Clubs
Posted: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:57:33 PDT

It's September, which means the 9th season of the Anime and RPG Tournament League is now underway.

The Anime and RPG Tournament League, two of the longest running clubs on 1up, are dedicated to holding tournaments three times a year to see who is the best and the strongest. The Tournament League is contest to determine who would win in a fight, not a popularity contest.

At the beginning of each season, people nominate characters to enter into the tournament. Matches begin when the roster is full or at the end of the month, whichever comes first. With the exception of the finals, two matches are held at a time, each lasting 48 hours. Please read the Rules and FAQs before you do anything and for the love of god, don't complain about the length. If you have any questions, just send a message to SnakeEyez.

I joined late last season just in time to participate in the semi-finals. Some of the matches were really close, like the one between Aigis (Persona 3) and Lenneth Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile) in the RPG Tournament. Aigis won the tiebreaker and moved on to the finals. The near-unstoppable Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy XII) defeated Heat (Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga), only to fall before Aigis in the finals. Meanwhile, in the Anime Tournament, Hazama (8 Man After) sliced and diced Alexander Anderson (Hellsing) while Masane Amaha (Witchblade) ripped apart Brandon Heat (Gungrave). The finals were not close at all, as Masane easily defeated Hazama.

It wasn't over yet. Last month, the champions from the last 8 seasons fought each other in the Anime and RPG Tournaments. Vash the Stampede (Trigun) cleared out the competition on the Anime side and Terra (Final Fantasy VI) edged out a close victory in the finals. We thought it was over, but there was one more match: the crossover battle! Needless to say, Terra defeated the Humanoid Typhoon and became the champion of the entire League.

I have a lot of fun in these two clubs, but there are two issues that need to be addressed: voting and match descriptions. This was posted by SnakeEyez in the club journal last month:

...As many of you have noticed by now, people have been voting less and less often as time goes on. Back in seasons two and three, we were receiving anywhere from 10 to 15 votes for every match. These past few seasons, though, we've had trouble getting even 3 or 4 people to vote on the matches within the required time. If we don't do something about this, things are only going to get worse. Unless we change something, people are going to vote less and less frequently -- to the point where we won't be able to complete any matches at all...

...Another thing I wanted to talk about is the match descriptions that I post for each match. Now I've been able to handle it so far without too much trouble, but starting in September, I will begin the daunting task of attending grad school while holding down a full-time job. This is not going to leave me with much free time, which is why I have to announce that I will no longer be writing descriptions for each match. They take a while to do, and I simply will not be able to spare the time...

...However, they are not gone entirely. I am looking for volunteers who would be willing to write the match descriptions for me. If we can get six volunteers, then that means each person would only have to write one set of match descriptions (in other words, match descriptions for two characters) once a week. That's not too much to ask, is it? If you are interested, it is imperative that you are able to meet a deadline and will be willing to do a bit of research on the characters you are writing about. You've all been reading my match descriptions for years now, so you should know the general length and style I'm looking for. If you are interested, either send me a personal message or post your intentions right here in the club journal...

So far, ilovepsm, the_edge, and I have volunteered to write match descriptions. It would really help if we can get more volunteers. Otherwise, we will have to write eight match descriptions a week. I know a good number of you are excellent writers. Some of you are active in RP clubs. You should consider helping out. It's for a great cause.

While you're at it, don't forget to nominate a character for either tournament. My entries are:

Syaoran (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/Tsubasa_syaoran.jpg

Mario (Paper Mario)

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/realmario.jpg

Most important, have fun!

[WanderingMind]

Youtube Poops are some of the most random videos I've ever watched.

Who's That Pokemon?
Posted: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:13:42 PDT

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Here's some Youtube Poop:

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Currently Playing: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

*Update* (September 24)

I got my car a couple hours ago. Woo hoo!

[WanderingMind]

The Mean Bean Machine!

What I've been playing:
Posted: Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:47:54 PDT

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

This game is really fun. I bought it when it came out, but never got around to finishing it. I got back into Portait of Ruin when I found something to play on my DS other than The World Ends With You last month. Don't get me wrong. I like TWENY, but I needed a break from that game.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/castleruinrev4.jpg

Right now, I have finished the last four portraits. All that's left is to upgrade my whip and defeat Brauner. I could also buy some items like the Master Ring. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to buy it. This is where the online shop mode really comes in handy. I could get someone to buy my stuff for large amounts of gold.

The unique thing about Portrait of Ruin is that you control not one, but two characters at the same time. Jonathan wields weapons while Charlotte wields magic. The tag-team concept works really well and it breathes some fresh air into the Castlevania series.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/s29328_nds_7.jpg

"Wonder Twins power, activate!"

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

I've forgotten how addicting this game is. Some of my friends were going through a bunch of games someone gave to my roommate and we found Sonic Mega Collection for the Gamecube. Of course, we played the Mean Bean Machine. Multiplayer is bean-tastic!

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/DRMBM_Screenshot.png

[WanderingMind]

I plan on trying out Star Ocean 3 because people seem to be really divided over that game.

Tokyo Game Show, anime, and reckless drivers
Posted: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:12:03 PDT

Games I'm looking forward to:

-Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/Star%20Ocean/so4d.jpg

Damn...this game looks beautiful. I skipped out on Till the End of Time, which I heard wasn't that great. From what I've heard, the battle system was okay and there was a really annoying plot twist near the end of the game. Hopefully, The Last Hope should be better.

-Chrono Trigger

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/chronotriggerinside.png

This is the port the PS1 version should have been, without the load times between battles and whenever you go to the menu.

-Street Fighter 4

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21955

I haven't played a Street Fighter game in a very long time. Sonic boom! Last one I played was SFII: Tournament Edition in the arcades many years ago. Hey! Hey! Street Fighter! Keep fighting! Make a future brighter! Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing SFIV when it comes out for the 360. Hadouken!

-Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
-Bayonetta
-Fallout 3
-Final Fantasy XIII
-The Last Renmant
-new Castlevania game

-Sonic Unleashed

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/sonic-unleashed-wii-61.jpg

When will we get a good Sonic game for the consoles? Not anytime soon. Unleashed has some potential, but I can't help but think that the werewolf concept will get in the way of the game. So much for pushing the Sonic series in a new direction. At this point, I'll be more than happy if Sega adds online play to Mean Bean Machine.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/sonic-unleashed-banner.jpg

-Castlevania Judgement

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/2656243297_626d3c3790.jpg

Like Sonic Unleashed, I have very low expectations for Castlevania Judgement. The character designs range from decent (Alucard) to awful (Simon), the game itself doesn't look that great, and there is no online play. Actually, I can do without the last one. The only reason I'm going to get Judgement is that I'm a fan of the series.

Anime:

I've been watching most of my shows in anime club. The following is the lineup for this year:

-Soul Eater
-Clannad
-Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
-Haibane Renmei
-Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

In case you were wondering, here is the lineup from last year:

-Ouran High School Host Club
-Seto no Hanayome
-Gurren Lagann
-Baccano!
-Speed Grapher
*Serial Experiments Lain

*Lain replaced Baccano halfway through the year.

Other Stuff:

A seven-year old kid stole his grandma's SUV and went on a joyride in my town a couple months ago:

<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GLeVlBca5lg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GLeVlBca5lg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>

[WanderingMind]

I was reading Double K when I wrote the title of my 100th blog.

Go Time!
Posted: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:53:16 PDT

Tonight is the Intramural Connect Four Tournament at my college. Expect awesomeness as I take on my opponents in this intense game. Wish me the best of luck.

*update*

So I'm back from the Intramural Connect Four Tournament. Sadly, I did not make it past the first round. The first match did not go well for me, as I made a lot of mistakes and didn't think about my moves ahead of time. The second match was slightly better. I wanted to end the match early on, but my opponent stopped me at every turn. I was hoping he would make a mistake so I could win the match easily, but it didn't happen. It went on and on until I realized that I was done for. I said, "I guess the game is already over" and made my last move. After the game was over, I walked back to my dorm. I guess I overestimated my skills. Hey, there's always next time, right?

Sorry if I haven't replied to all the comments in my last blog. I'll do it when I get the time.

I'm glad I could celebrate my 4th anniversary on 1up.

4 Years On 1up
Posted: Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:23:02 PST

Today is my fourth anniversary on 1up. I can't believe it's been that long since I signed up. 1up was a relatively new place back then. A couple months before I joined, 1up made the jump from a regular gaming site to a gaming / social networking site. Some of you may remember the name "1UP 2.0." It was a time when there were many active people in the community. There were a number of clubs that were active for more than a couple months. Instead of the blog tools we have today, we had to use HTML if we wanted our posts to look fancy. I had to learn HTML, whether I liked it or not. One thing that never really changed was 1up being a pain to load on slow computers. Actually, it's not as bad as it was four years ago.

The first gaming website I ever signed up for was GameFAQs, before Gamespot bought it. That was in August 2004. I hanged out on the forums for some time and contributed credits to a number of games, including Aliens and Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja. It wasn't long before I got tired of the forums and wanted to find a better place to hang out. This is where 1up came in.

Before 1up, there was the old Gamers.com. It's still active today, but it was a different place five to six years ago. I heard about Gamers.com through Electronic Gaming Monthly and I would go there on a regular basis. In 2003, the old Gamers.com became 1up.com, which was a really good move. The following year, 1up went through an upgrade and became the website we all know and love today. I couldn't have asked for a better place, especially when compared to GameFAQs. On November 2, 2004, I joined 1up.

Reading my blogs from the 2004 to 2006 makes me appreciate how far my writing has come. Seriously, take a look if you are interested. My grammar was awful, I had no clue what I was talking about most of the time, and it looked like I wrote most of my blogs for myself. You probably wouldn't understand most of my blogs from 2005 unless you know me personally. Feel free to tell me otherwise, though.

My writing started to improve by 2006. My blogs were actually interesting for once and I was active in a number of clubs. Just when things started to look good, I decided to leave 1up halfway through the year for two reasons. The first reason had to do with a promise I made about posting a story here. I failed to follow up on it and it got to the point where kept myself from writing another blog for the longest time. It sounds ridiculous, but that's how I felt. The second reason was a number of personal issues that came up. I had a falling out with my dad later that year. I won't go into details, but I haven't spoken to him since then. I also became really busy with homework. 1up no longer seemed that important to me.

Fast forward to February 2008. Just when I was ready to post a blog about how I was going to move onto better things, I realized how much I missed 1up. After being gone for almost two years, I made my comeback. One could say I had really bad timing, because 1up went through the dreaded server change a couple days later. All of the sudden, 1up became broken. Pages wouldn't load. Html tags didn't work. People got logged out randomly. Friend lists became mysteriously shorter. It got to the point where I moved my blog to Blogger, which lasted three days before I gave up and returned to 1up.

My turning point came when I finished "The Yu-Gi-Oh Brawl" and posted it on 1up after two years. My writing got a lot better afterwards and I started reading other people's blogs. I made a lot of new friends and got involved in the Anime and RPG Tournament League.

Thanks to AlucardsFate and GlassAdam, I discovered Foxkei. It's the best forum I've ever been on and I've met awesome people like Unit-Foxhound, Heiae, Red_Wizard, SnakeEyez, berkinG, and ilovepsm. If I'm not on 1up, chances are I'm on Foxkei. You're more than welcome to join us.

Thank you to 1up for being an awesome place. I'm going to dedicate my next blog to all the friends I've made here. Stay tuned!

[WanderingMind]

It took me a very long time to write this blog, but it was worth it.

The Thank You Blog
Posted: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:02:27 PST

As promised, I'm dedicating this blog to all the friends I've made on 1up over the years.

Sam (rudesam): My first real friend on 1up. His movie reviews always entertain me and he introduced me to Daffyphack. Remember when we went on the college tour through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina with our high school and another school? It ended up being a total waste of time, but it makes for one hell of a story.

AlucardsFate: Congratulations on your victory in the Anime Tournament League. You deserve it all the way. I'm glad I got to see your nine season curse finally broken. Thank you for writing some of my match descriptions for me when I struggled to write them on my own. I think it was fate when I first met him one April afternoon. I was bored one April afternoon and decided to find some more people on 1up, despite the friends list being broken at the time thanks to the server change. I liked his page so much that I sent him a friend invite. Alucard knows more about Castlevania than any other person I know around here. He'll get Order of Ecclasia...someday. He also has an open taste in anime, not that I don't find anything wrong with it. (Thank you for getting me to watch Kodocha. Awesome dub for the win. Next up, Wichblade.) You first introduced me to Foxkei, for which I am really grateful. Here's to Urd! Huzzah!

Brian (SnakeEyez): Brian is a remarkable writer I first met on Foxkei. It takes a special person to write about Wrestlemania in a way that I can enjoy reading it. One of my favorite blogs of his is about the one time he found an abandoned Sega Genesis near his college a couple years back. He doesn't blog much these days, but he runs the Anime and RPG Tournament League, two of the longest running clubs on 1up. I joined both clubs in July just in time to vote for the Season 8 Semi-Finals. Thank you for letting me vote even though I didn't have 150 Club Posts at the time. I got to see Masane (Witchblade) win the Anime Tournament and Aigis (Persona 3 FES) win the RPG Tournament. The following season, I helped write the match descriptions for Brian along with Alucard and Alex (NintendoFanboy19). It was a lot of fun and it was a learning experience for me. Thank you for making both clubs possible.

Nemesis_Enforcer: Where do I start? You are one of the liveliest and nicest people I've met on 1up. It's awesome that we share the same interest in anime, manga, and Japanese culture in general. I wish I got to know you earlier, because I was about to disappear from 1up for two years when you sent me a really nice friend invite back in the middle of 2006. I can't do anything about the past, but I'm glad I was around to see you make your comeback. I hope Texas is treating you well. Even though I'm not into RPing, I can say that you have some amazing writing skills. It's been an honor to know someone like you.

Joe (Mr_Bucket): I have a lot of respect for this guy, even if I didn't always agree with him. As some of you may remember, Joe had a number of enemies on 1up. He never went down to their level, however. He introduced me to the Awful 1up Club, which featured hilariously bad user pages and clubs. It was fun while it lasted. When a certain troll destroyed the club, you helped put an end to his rampant flaming and harassment of other users. Thank you for giving me the inspiration for my guide to college.

Cami (State_Alchamist): Cami is truly the Photobucket Queen. She has a lot of awesome pictures and is going to learn how to use Photoshop. I promised her that I'll play against her in Brawl once I get my Wii online, no matter how long it takes. I should have done this earlier, but I want to give you credit for some of the pictures in my "Persona 3 FES is Awesome" blog. I hope you're having a great week and enjoy your Thanksgiving.

PSM (ilovepsm): This Disgaea and Koei fan convinced me to get MSN Messenger, which I'm liking a lot better than AIM. He also introduced me to a lot of awesome video game music remixes. Like a number of other people, I first met PSM through Foxkei. How's that story of yours coming along? Thank you for motivating me to write my story, "Mysterious Grounds".

Fox (Unit-Foxhound): This former 1upper runs Foxkei, the best forums I've ever been on. He also runs a blog of his own, covering video games, Metal Gear Solid, anime, and everything in between. I never met him while he was on 1up, but I'm glad I got to meet him on Foxkei. Thank you for running an awesome place.

star_eye: I remember the first time I met star_eye. One day, I was browsing through one of Nemesis' blogs and saw some blond girl for an avatar. Turns out it was Edward Elric. The rest is history, as they say. We've had a lot of awesome chats on MSN and I promised him that I would be online more often. Thank you for being awesome, as always.

GlassAdam: This guy has an amazing sense of humor. I've lost count of how many times he's sent me to the floor in bouts of laughter. He may not blog often, but he's about quality over quantity. That's GlassAdam for you. Thank you for convincing me to join Foxkei back in April and for introducing me to Giant Robo: The Animation.

smashbro: How's Persona 3 going? I hope you're having fun, because I did when I played that game earlier this year. Smashbro is a really funny writer and loves his Smash Bros., hence the name. His antics with GlassAdam is the stuff of legends. I totally imagine them starring in a cop buddy movie with a funky theme song.

Ed (Red_Wizard): One of the most old-school gamers I've ever met. He prefers the older Final Fantasy games over the newer ones and is unhappy about the new Xbox Live layout. Ed introduced me to a number of awesome shows like Hard News and Captain S. He's also good at cooking, something I wish I could say about myself. Thank you for convincing me to get the Pro when I was wondering what 360 I should get. You should be happy to hear that I checked out the original 1950s Godzilla from my college library to watch at home over Thanksgiving break.

Alex (NintendoFanboy19): Alex is a true Nintendo fan. He writes about games that I would never know about if it wasn't for his blogs. His match descriptions for the Anime and RPG Tournament League were always entertaining to read. Thank you for adding me on Deviantart. I'm working on another story, but who knows when I'll actually finish it. Wish me luck.

Christian (ckhris-sol-badguy): Christian recommended Code Monkeys in one of his blogs. I checked it out for myself on G4 and it's probably the only show that I actually like on that channel. I enjoy reading his blogs, as always.

The Baber (berkinG): Like so many other people, I first met the Baber on Foxkei. He's a big Tezuka fan and had the chance to play Street Fighter IV in the arcades. Go him. He and I are really good buddies and I hope to challenge him in Brawl one day. I hear he's really good at that game, but I want to see for myself.

Kate (sonicbug): I thought I was the only Mac gamer around here until I found Kate. She has an endless knowledge of manga and she's the one to ask for recommendations.

Antonio (trafar94): Antonio writes some of the most thoughtful and incisive blogs I've seen on 1up. His writing is something you don't see enough of around this place.

Nos (NosLived): Dude is one of the funniest people I've met on 1up. I've lost count of how many times his comments cracked me up, especially the one about going to IHOP for his birthday. I promise I'll play against you in Super Smash Bros. Brawl someday, no matter how long it takes for me to finally get my Wii online.

Kyo (Kyoshira): Thank you for convincing me to try out Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time, even though people are really divided on that game. Who knows, I might talk about it in a future blog.

[WanderingMind]

Part 2 of the Thank You Blog


Star (starcrossed): Star may be new around here, but she's an active RPer and one of the newest members of the Anime and RPG Tournament League. I like your greeting and I'll try to listen to your radio show when I get the time.

Matt (DarkSoulllV): A fellow Persona fan, Matt has one of the best greeting layouts I've seen on 1up. He makes really cool banners and I'm going to request him to make one for me. You know, it's going to be the first banner I've ever had.

DjinntoTonic: Dijinn's knowledge is invaluable when it comes to the RPG Tournament League. I'm not good with math, but I can appreciate his approach to voting on matches. Thank you for the friend invite. It's people like you who encourage me to keep on writing blogs.

Daffy (daffyphack): I love his comic. He's responsible for getting me into Lucky Star. It started one day when I read one of his comics and said that I passed by a Chinese / Japanese restaurant called Lucky Star. He sent me the intro for the anime. I liked the intro so much that I'm now watching the rest of the series. We both agree that Metroid Prime 2 is a pretty terrible game full of frustration.

Cody (TheNintendoTheory): Cody is one of the most dedicated people I've met on 1up. He keeps up with over 70 blogs on 1up, which I find amazing. He always writes great blogs and we both agree that game reviews can do without scores. Thank you for being an awesome member of the community.

Randy (rmsk8r05): Randy does some amazing art. Mario + Indiana Jones = Win.

Linkthelegend2: One of the most helpful people I've met on 1up. He's an awesome mod who runs the 1uppers Podcast. I promise myself I'm going to listen to it when I get the chance. During the short time I hung out on the 1up Boards, Linkthelegend posted some really funny pictures in the picture thread in Not Games. Your reviews are really helpful and had I read your review for the Opera Browser for the Wii, I would not have wasted my money on it.

Minato (super_sephiroth): Minato is the one person who convinced me to get Persona 3 FES, one of the best games I've played this year. Awesome points for you. Thank you for running Procrastinators Unite, which was fun while it lasted.

Fandel (funnydale): Funnydale writes a lot of insightful blogs. I agree with him about Destructoid. One thing I would add is that the site is slower than 1up, which say a lot. It's a shame, because I like some of their articles. I'm sorry I never got the chance to play against you in Brawl. Oh well. Thank you for adding me on Xbox Live, even though I don't have a 360 yet.

Kat (Crimson-Hrist): Thank you for getting me hooked on TVTropes earlier this year. I enjoy reading your blogs and congrats on becoming a staff member.

Aaron (BreakfastPills): Awesome guy who writes awesome blogs. We shall finish Twilight Princess one day, right?

mala_suerte: Thank you for staying on 1up, even though you joined during the worst time possible, back in February. You didn't let the bugs scare you away from this place and you're the first person to do story votes in the Anime and RPG Tournament League in a long time.

Conor (crazycanadian): I wish I could write as well as you when I was 16. Your writing has improved over the years and had you sent me a friend invite today, I would've turned it down right away. Then again, I was a different person during the 2004-2006 years. Your reviews are helpful, as always.

Richard (Heiae): Two things come to mind. RAAAAGE. Awesomeness. Heiae is one of the most unique people I've ever met and has an awesome taste in video games. I always get a kick out of watching his Youtube videos from time to time. Congrats on getting a PS3. I hope you're enjoy it. I won't be able to play Valkyria Chronicles for a while.

Robbie (B0nd07): One of the most helpful people I know on 1up. I met Robbie back in the 1up Bounty Hunters, a club dedicated to making 1up a safer place, one user and club at a time. It was shut down two years ago because of 1up's policy on one User and Club Abuse club. Robbie makes some really cool banners and check out his Deviantart page if you get the chance.

Rob (retroyoshi): It was a relief when I found someone who has owned Twilight Princess for a long time and hasn't gotten around to finishing it. I love his blog about Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I hope to watch more of that show when I get the time.

Genres (genresrforposers): I'll never forget how I first met Genres. It all started when I made a Russian reversal in a comment in one of PSM's blogs. The rest was history. I really enjoy the guitar videos he posts from time to time.

David (DTJAAAAM): Congrats on breaking 100,000 points on Live. You are the only person I know who has done it. I enjoy reading about your adventures and gaming finds.

Mike (snake-man127): I remember reading his April Fools blog and making the grave mistake of clicking on the fifth link. It was the first time I got Rick Rolled. Mike makes some really cool sigs and I hope to request one from him one day.

Ser (serraxor): Ser was the first person to comment on my page when I returned to 1up earlier this year. Ser, along with Valke, run Nuclear Geek, a blog that I regularly follow and recommend everyone to do the same.

Thank you to everyone who I didn't mention. I'll update this list as I reply to comments. In the meantime, here are some videos I found on Youtube:

Cowboy Bebop meets Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

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"A Definition of the Word Fuck" a la Jade Curtiss

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Air Man Will Not Die

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[WanderingMind]

Guess where I got the title from.

Chicken pot pie!
Posted: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:08:31 PST

One day, I saw a porcupine outside my dorm. Nothing happened.

Here is some more stuff to hold you over until my next real blog:


Snatch with Baccano OP

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Darth Vader vs. Japanese police

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Soulja Boy's Challenge Accepted

If you haven't heard already, Soulja Boy is challenging anyone to beat him on Xbox Live. I thought that song of his was bad enough, but he's asking to get his ass kicked. I'm not making this up. The awesome folks at ScrewAttack have accepted (http://www.screwattack.com/Random/WeAccept) his challenge and I hope Soulja Boy keeps his word so he can get owned hard.

[WanderingMind]

The green-hair girl in the Santa suit is Eirika from Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones.

My backlog...dun dun!
Posted: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:26:01 PST

I recently signed up for The Backloggery, a place where you can keep track of your backlog and the games you've finished. It's an awesome place I came across a couple months ago and it works better than the game collection feature on 1up. For starters, you don't have to worry about if The Backloggery has a game in its database because all you have to do is type the title of the game when you add it to your list. You can customize your page, upload a banner, friend people, and add details for a game, like rating it 1-4 stars and whether you own it or not.

http://backloggery.com/sigs/sig.php?user=wanderingmind (http://backloggery.com/main.php?user=wanderingmind)

That's my Backloggery right there. My list is not complete...but wow...that's a lot of unfinished games I need to go through. I don't want to think about my list when I finish it...*shudder*. It's not as bad as you think...because I found a way to lighten the load. You can mark a game "null", meaning that it doesn't count in your backlog statistics. I've gone through some of my older games to see if I want to finish them. A couple nights ago, I pulled Bomberman Hero for the Nintendo 64 and picked up where I last left off. I lasted five minutes before I decided that I would never play the single player mode again along with Bomberman 64 while I was at it. I went through some of my other games and marked "null" the ones I would never bother to beat.

In better news....I just beat Gears of War 2, the first one I beat since making my Backloggery. Aside from a couple frustrating moments like crossing the frozen pond, I really enjoyed the campaign mode. Next up...Eternal Sonata and Chrono Trigger DS. I like Eternal Sonata so far, but the battle system is startin to annoy me....namely how you need really good timing in order to block enemy attacks. Seriously, those rats can do some heavy damage. I think I'm not fully used to the battle system. That aside...this game looks amazing.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/1up/etersonatapic4.jpg

A lot of people said Eternal Sonata was mediocre, but you should try it out for yourself. As for me...I'm glad I bought this game. That's all I have to say right now.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh18/egmmer/Game%20Art/Fire%20Emblem/12cba65f3cc2308173f5792459067a00.jpg

[WanderingMind]

When life gives you a lemon (my grandma Ruth sending me a mean letter along with a check), turn it into lemonade (use the gift money to get a PS3).

An Unexpected Surprise
Posted: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:56:24 PST

Yesterday, I went to Universal Studios with two of my friends from high school. I really liked the Simpsons ride, even though I miss the Back to the Future ride. Once Universal closed, we saw the Spirit. It was by far the worst movie of the year. Yes, it made Star Wars: The Clone Wars look good. The movie felt lifeless and there were a lot of moments that made me go "what the hell!?" I'm not going to bother writing a review because I want to forget I ever saw it. I stayed at a friend's apartment for the night and went back home the next day. Other than the movie, I had a really good time.

In better news, I got myself a PS3. There's a bit of a story behind it. I was at my grandparents' place on Christmas day with my older sister when my older brother came in. He brought the gifts my dad had ready for me as well as a check from my grandma Ruth if I still spoke to either of them. It turned out I had enough gift money to get myself a 160 GB PS3, so I bought it the next day and got Uncharted, Disgaea 3, and Valkyria Chronicles for it. While I was at it, I got Star Ocean: First Departure for the PSP along with vol 3 of Gunbuster 2 and vols 4, 5, and the vol 7 boxset for Tsubasa Chronicle. I couldn't find vol 6 of Tsubasa Chronicle at the time. Seeing vol 3 of Gunbuster 2 on sale for $20 instead of the original $40 put a smile on my face.

Feel free to add me on PSN as WanderingMind11.

Can someone please explain why people like Trinity Blood? I've been watching it for the past week and I don't see anything great about it. I'm on episode 10 so far and I think it's a mediocre anime at best. I didn't feel like watching Trinity Blood this afternoon, so I watched episodes 17-22 of Tsubasa Chronicle and I'm in a better mood because of it.

Here's the latest Hard News:

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[WanderingMind]

I've really come a long way since I joined 1up back in November 2004.

Happy New Year!
Posted: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:18:01 PST

It's about an hour before midnight and I just started my New Year's blog. Procrastination for the win! Anyway...I had trouble thinking of something to write about. Writer's block is no fun...what else was I going to say...ummm....now I remember! I dug out my copy of Medal of Honor Underground a couple days ago and I've been playing it until earlier this evening. Even though the controls and the enemy AI are dated, the game is still a lot of fun. Underground throws a lot of surprises at you, like knights in armor and gun-toting dogs. I have to admit, it's really easy to take advantage of the game. For example, during the disguise missions, I'll stand a couple feet away from an enemy and shoot him in the head without noticing me. I was making progress in Underground until one of the levels wouldn't load properly. Some parts of the level won't show up, the AI acts really funny, and the music will sometimes loop itself. The big problem I have with playing it on the PS3 is that I will hear a gunshot at the very beginning of any given level and the music won't play. My disc has some scratches, so I'll have to find another copy of the game. Oh well. Time to find something else to play.

For my new year's resolution, I'm going to finish a lot of games in my backlog. It's not going to be an easy task, but I hope to go through a lot of RPGs next year, namely Chrono Trigger, The World Ends With You, Eternal Sonata, and Tales of Vesperia. It's a bit of a stretch, but it can be done.

Other Happenings:

-Trinity Blood is not getting any better. I watched the first episode of Rosario + Vampire capu2 out of sheer curiosity. The only thing I remember is that there was a lot of fanservice. A lot. On second thought, I think I'll stick with Trinity Blood and enjoy the action sequences.

-I saw Burn Notice on tv and I now want to watch more of it.

-Enjoy this video:

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-Have a Happy New Year!

[WanderingMind]

The beginning of the end.

Time for me to leave 1up
Posted: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:24:40 PST

One of the resolutions I made this year was to finish a lot of games in my backlog. To give myself more of a challenge, I resolve to finish at least 7 RPGs by the end of this year, of which Chrono Trigger would be the first I would beat. I fought Lavos last night and defeated him after a number of tries. I ended up using Lucca, Frog, and Ayla. I got the regular ending. In all, it took me 24 hours to finish this game. I then went to the Backloggery in order to update my list. Once I was done updating my backloggery, I signed on MSN and told ilovepsm that I finished Chrono Trigger. He then broke the news to me: EGM is dead, 1up was sold to UGO, and a lot of people got laid off from 1up.

Great. There goes the good mood I was in from beating Chrono Trigger. I knew EGM was dying and that UGO was going to buy 1up sooner or later, but like so many other people, I thought that most of the staff would stay here. The news of yesterday changes everything. More than 30 people were laid off and the podcasts are canned. Granted, I never really listed to the podcasts, but I liked what I saw and heard. Sam's blog from yesterday didn't make things any better. I refuse to link it here, so look it up on your own. Jeff Green's "No, You're not the same 1up (http://jeff-greenspeak.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-youre-not-same-1up.html)" blog says it the best about the current situation.

I thought I would never have to say this, but the time has come: I'm leaving 1up for good. I wish it didn't have to come to this, but I'm at the point where I can stay on 1up no longer. It's a shame, since I have a lot of memories from the 2004-2006 years and 2008. The one thing that has kept me on 1up for all these years is the community. I've met a lot of awesome people and had a lot of fun in the Anime and RPG Tournament League. I was willing to overlook the technical issues of this site for this very reason. I complained about the changes and bugs in the past, but I accepted them for what they were and moved on with my life. Not even the server change last year could scare me away from this site. As much as I dislike the new club format, it wasn't too difficult for me to accept that it was here to stay.

Things are different this time, however. Out of all the places that bought 1up, it had to be UGO. Heck, I haven't heard the name being mention since I read some ad about it in some magazine a long time ago. I checked UGO out and I'm not all too impressed with it. I'll take ScrewAttack and GiantBomb over that site any day of the week.

Now is the best time for me to leave 1up for good. 1up's future is uncertain and a lot of my friends are leaving as well. Before I say goodbye to this place, I have to take care of a number of things:

1) Set up a new home for my blog on Wordpress

2) Back up my blogs

3) Do my rounds on 1up (commenting on blogs)

4) Keep my fingers crossed about anything related to the Anime and RPG Tournament League.

Feel free to take the time to browse through my older blogs, send me a personal message, or do anything else that I can't think of at the moment. Stay tuned for updates in the next couple days as I try get everything done.

Update: 01/08/10

The only reason I'm sticking around 1up is because of the Anime and RPG Tournament League. Once Season 10 is over in March, I'm out of here.